Casinos in Texas, Oklahoma & Washington

I do not know if they still exist, but at one point in time 2 of the Indian tribes that still exist (in small numbers) in Texas, opened small casinos. The state of Texas did not like this. I do not know if Texas was successful in shutting the Indian casinos.

Other states that long ago tried to shut down Indian casinos found themselves on the losing end of court battles with the tribes, like my old home state of Washington. Eventually the state gave up, with the result being there are now Indian casinos all over the state, pretty much every Indian Reservation has at least one casino.

That is an Orca (Killer Whale) jumping out of the water in front of the Tulalip Casino in Marysville. This casino has some very well done water features. For more pictures and a list of the Washington casinos, go here.

In Washington, like Oklahoma, there is a lot of land set aside as Indian Reservations. Texas solved their Indian problem by either killing them or running them out of the state, with a few very small reservations. Some of the famous Texas Indians, like Quanah Parker, kept up contacts with Texans, even while living in Oklahoma.

All the states bordering Texas allow casinos. The 5th largest casino in the world is just across the border, in Oklahoma, that being WinStar World Casino. It would seem that an awful lot of Texas money leaves the state and ends up in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas. There are attempts to allow casino zones in Texas. The Fort Worth Stockyards is suggested as one location. I've seen what a casino can do for an area. I think it would be a good thing for Texas to legalize casinos.

But, then again, if Texas legalized casinos it would likely destroy the border casinos, like WinStar and Choctaw Casino in Durant and Kiowa Casino, just north of Wichita Falls. It'd likely be hard on all those riverboat casinos in Shreveport/Bossier City in Louisiana.

Oklahoma has an incredible number of casinos, as in dozens upon dozens. Go here to see a list of all the casinos in Oklahoma.

Many of the Washington casinos have added large hotel type resorts to their casinos, just like WinStar World and Choctaw Casinos have done in Oklahoma. The revenue from the casino resorts has made the tribes in Washington much more prosperous.

However, if I were the dictator I would have never allowed casino gambling anywhere but Nevada. I used to really like going to Nevada. It was like a whole different type world as soon as you crossed the border. All that neon and the clink clink clink of slot machines virtually everywhere. Nevada ceased being unique well before I moved to Texas. The Skagit Valley, where I lived, even back then, had 2 large casinos. Now they are much larger, and totally Nevada-like. Slot machines were allowed after I moved to Texas. Those really amped up the popularity of the casinos.

So, now that the casino lid is totally off, for the most part, Texas really should join the club and stop sending all that money to the bordering states.

Texas Hot 4th Of July Hiking With No Fireworks Or Orcas

The red, white and blue of the stars and stripes were providing the best color on the prairie this afternoon at the Tandy Hills Natural Area. That's the flag waving in the slight breeze on its pole high atop Mount Tandy.

I slept in to the unprecedented hour of 7 this morning. This had me in the pool way later than usual. Which pushed breakfast off til 10, which pushed going hiking off til 1, giving the air plenty of time to get HOT, which it did.

It was 98 when I left here to go hiking. By the time I got back here I jumped in the pool. I didn't care that I was in my hiking cargo shorts. I wanted to get wet from something other than being drenched in sweat. This morning when I went swimming the pool was warmer than the air. By this afternoon that condition had reversed, which was a good thing.

It is the 4th of July. I have not heard a single firecracker. Texas is such a repressive state. Due to running their Indians out of the state, or killing them off, Texas has only 2, very small, Indian Reservations. In my old state of Washington we liked our Indians and made them our friends. The Indians help Washingtonians participate in the 4th of July by providing fireworks supply areas, with names like Boom Town. Boom Town is huge. It is run by the Tulalip Tribe. The Tulalip also have what may be the best casino in Washington. I liked the big Orca out front with the giant Indian getting ready to spear a salmon. Just a sec, I'll see if I can find a picture I took of the Orca.

That picture took way too long to find. The Tulalip Casino is, for want of a better word, cool. You've got that splashing Orca, the Tulalip Indian spearing giant salmon, a lot of water, sound effects, and when you walk into the casino there are waterfalls on either side of you. Inside the casino the effect is that you are underwater, in an aquarium. I've been told the buffet is really good. The slightly nearby Swinomish Casino, just a few miles from my Washington abode, had the best seafood buffet. Oysters just like mom makes them.

In my old neighborhood, known as Thunderbird, in the town known as Mount Vernon, all the streets are named after tribes. I lived on Pawnee Lane. Pawnee connected to Apache. (Go here for a virtual visit to where I used to live, where you'll see my cat Hortense reading the morning paper with me and the deepest snow in all my years of living up north) In the valley in which I lived, Skagit, there are several tribes, the Skagit, the Samish and the Swinomish. The Skagit Valley tribes have nice reservations. Two of the tribes have built casinos in the valley. The little valley I lived in has 2 huge casino complexes. There are none of those anywhere in Texas.

The Washington casinos are not like those goofy ones up in Oklahoma where it's like a pretend casino, the Washington casinos are just like what you find in Nevada, minus topless girls and strip shows. And free drinks.

Anyway, the tribes in Washington make a lot of money selling fireworks. Tonight my old neighborhood will become like a war zone. It was fun to watch and would go on for hours. One group would launch a display, then another would try and out do them. The area where my house sat was heavily wooded with huge fir trees. I was ready with a hose should a firework go awry. I had several land on my roof, which was flat. No fires ever started though.

So, what was I saying, oh yeah, in Washington, by now, I would have been hearing firecrackers going off for days. With today almost non-stop, with all hell breaking loose once it got dark.

When I moved to Texas, the first location was in far north Fort Worth, with the mailbox in Fort Worth and the house in Haslet. We all anticipated a very wild 4th. We were in Texas, for gawdsakes, everyone packs heat here, they're big on their cowboy, wild west past. So, as the sun began to set, we sat outside waiting for something to happen. There were a few random noises, but we were all in WTH? mode. Now I live deeper into the urban zone. I suspect I will not hear a single firecracker tonight.

What happened here that has these people so stifled? Was there some sort of silent coup that took away some basic freedoms that the rest of America enjoys? It perplexes me. It would likely really perplex a lifelong Texan if he/she were to find him/herself in my old neighborhood tonight.

Washington Casinos

Earlier today I blogged about the absurdity of the sanctimonious attitude, of some, towards the concept of allowing casinos to operate in Texas, a prohibition which sends untold millions of Texans across the borders of neighboring states in order to get their gambling fix.

Well, after I blogged about that I remembered I'd taken photos of the new, then, Tulalip Casino in Washington, when I was up there in, I think, 2004.

That is the Tulalip Casino in the photo. That is an Orca (Killer Whale) jumping out of the water in front of the casino. Seen anything like that in Texas?

When I remembered those photos, I thought, hmmm, I should make a Washington Casino webpage and add it to my Washington webpages. And so I did.

So, now you can go here and see some photos of the Tulalip Casino in Marysville, Washington. Now, I ask you, would this type thing be such a horrible thing to add to the Texas landscape??

Gambling With Texas

There are some things that Texans accept as making sense that seem really goofy to a non-Texan. Like the Texas liquor laws. They are very convoluted. I live in a wet zone, next to a dry zone. Right on the border. So, I am surrounded by liquor stores.

That sort of relates to my change of subject. That being gambling in Texas. For most types of gambling Texas is a dry zone. The bordering states are wet zones.

Texas allows gambling on horses. There is a state run lottery in Texas.

In state after state the Indian Nations have won court battles giving them the right to open casinos. But in Texas, the few Indians who were not run out of the state opened a couple casinos, but Texas successfully shut them down.

A few years back a Wal-Mart in Denton, Texas was doing a fun thing for seniors. As in they ran a freebie bingo game with prizes, like bananas and boxes of Depends. The state shut down the bingo game for violating the gambling laws. I don't remember if any of the elderly were arrested.

Ever so often a Texas politician will try to get casino gambling legalized in Texas, to no avail. I don't quite understand what the aversion to casinos is. Maybe Texas is being kind to Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico, knowing if casinos were legalized in Texas it would devastate the economies of those states.

A lot of money flows from Texas to the riverboat casinos across the border in Shreveport and Bossier City. Riverboat casinos? Well, it isn't just Texas that is convoluted about how they go about things. In Louisiana it was decided that somehow gambling was less sinful if it took place on a boat that could float away if need be.

Oklahoma allowed casinos a few years back. They are sort of pseudo casinos with make believe slot machines that I don't quite understand. New Mexico has real casinos that don't have to float.

When I was younger and living in Washington it was a fun thing to go to Reno, Nevada. Back then Nevada seemed so different from the rest of America. And then the Indian Tribes won the right to open casinos in all the states, except Utah, that surround Nevada. Now, when I'm in Tacoma, there are 2 Nevada quality casinos to play in. With real slot machines. That are actually entertaining. Like this giant Monopoly game one that plays like the real Monopoly game with giant dice spinning over head. Lulu and I somehow figured out how to regularly come out ahead on the Monopoly game. Lulu told me a new casino is under construction in Tacoma that will replace the Muckleshoot Casino as the state's biggest. Their seafood buffet is a good thing. The current big one in Tacoma, where I've played with Lulu, is called the Emerald Queen Casino.

Where I lived in Washington, the Skagit Valley, there are two Indian casinos, both prosperous. One run by the Swinomish Tribe with a marina and RV Park part of the casino complex, the other run by the Upper Skagit Tribe, with a large hotel. (built without government subsidy unlike what had to be done to get Fort Worth's seldom used Convention Center a hotel) A few miles south of where I lived the Tulalip Indians have built a Vegas quality casino that is quite cool. Prior to deciding the Golden Corral was the world's best buffet, Lulu thought that of the Tulalip Casino's buffet. That's the front of the Tulalip Casino with a pod of Orca Killer Whales and a giant Indian spearing a giant salmon.

Reno is on hard times due to all the west coast casinos. I think the same thing would happen to the casinos on the Texas border, if Texas were to allow casinos in Texas. All that money would stay in Texas. I think Texas is quite kind to help its neighbors like this.